Given the amount of plug that preceded theiPad ’s release , it ’s hard to believe that it would conduct any great surprises not touted by Apple or that it could possibly live up to expectations . Still , whenwe unpacked our iPads on April 3and used them over the next three week , we found unexpected joy as well as features that made us go “ Hmm … . ”
With the Wi - Fi iPad approach its first month on the market — and the 3G - enabled models set to arrive at the close of this hebdomad — here ’s a rundown of what surprised and disappointed us with Apple ’s later wandering machine .
Pleasant surprises
wow though we were with Apple ’s promotional videos of the iPad , seeing ( and touching , tap , and swiping ) is believe .
Thanks to its larger Earth’s surface , the iPad and its touch user interface feel any more born than it does on an iPhone or iPod touch .
Super natural : Now that iPhones and iPod touches are commonplace , it ’s easy to bury just how raw the iPhone interface matte the first sentence you used it . The iPad , with its larger surface ( and , thus , more absolvitory nature when it comes to tapping and swiping in the right-hand position ) may find even more natural ( and sure less cramped ) than its smaller sib .
Thanks to its larger surface, the iPad and its touch interface feels any more natural than it does on an iPhone or iPod touch.
A compelling speaker : It ’s those initial surprises that make a long-lasting impression and the one cited often by our work party of iPad owners was the quality of the machine ’s built - in speaker . Those of us accustom to the iPod touching ’s speaker ( painful ) or iPhone ’s speaker ( less dread ) had little hope for the iPad ’s ability to make sound , yet the speaker is quite cheap and not nearly as tinny as most of us expected .
Watch a movie in landscape orientation on the iPad , and the audio frequency will sound demented because of the gadget ’s lone verbaliser .
That said , if one were to nitpick the speaker , it would be to chicane about the speaker ’s one - sided nature . The speaker unit porthole is at the bottom of the twist . When you twist the iPad to landscape orientation to watch a TV , you hear most of the sound from the side of the iPad where the speaker unit port sit , make the strait unhinged .
Watch a movie in landscape orientation on the iPad, and the audio will sound unbalanced because of the device’s lone speaker.
Size matters : The mode the iPad ’s larger show is put to use — particularly when the iPad is moved to landscape orientation — was also a popular surprisal . The configurations , Mail , and iPod apps , in particular , are far easier to use than they are on the iPhone and iPod touch because you may check more user interface elements on screen , which leads to far few move - back - a - Thomas Nelson Page maneuvers .
The screen ’s the matter for gambling : Another region where the iPad ’s larger concealment pay dividends is for gaming . It ’s one thing to say that the iPad is an outsized iPod touch ; it ’s quite another to really play a biz on this new gadget . The larger cover does n’t just mean you could see more of your game , it think of that the intact ascendency interface can be dramatically change . With the iPhone and iPod touch , biz makers had to squeeze controls into a humble space ; the iPad ’s spacious interface allows them to offer more clitoris , more control , and thus more complicated tasks .
A bigger screen gives iPad game Jehovah more elbow room for controls . And that means a better overall play experience .
A bigger screen gives iPad game makers more room for controls. And that means a better overall gaming experience.
Two genres in particular will be better served on the iPad : scheme games and first - person shooters . The larger screen affords a larger battlefield view and by allowing player to control the zoom , they ’ll be able to grade larger groups of tank , see greater portion of the map , and have a more exact control of the battlefield . First - person taw play better on the iPad because the port is simply less littered . The FPS writing style is also one of the more graphically intensive , and so far games that have made the transition look a earth good on the iPad . More important , they act better , too .
Staying put : Speaking of orientation , we give two - and - a - half cheers for the predilection lock switch on the side of the iPad . Now that we ’ve become habitual to a switch that keeps our iPads in landscape painting or portrayal preference , regardless of how we ’ve positioned our iPads , we enquire why this feature was n’t brought to the iPhone long ago .
Why not the full three cheerfulness ? Unlike with the iPhone , where the invention of the equipment makes it easygoing to say by trace whether the Home button is on the left or right side of the concealment , on the iPad it ’s easy to forget which agency you ’ve turned it , thus mislay track of where the preference lock shift is .
It feels like the ample Home screen space could be put to better use.
Keyboard ascendency : move to hide - but - coolheaded observance , it ’s squeamish that when using an outside keyboard ( Bluetooth or docked ) with the iPad , many of the keyboard command you use to create left over reference on your Mac— © ?¡ ™ £¢?¢¬ , for deterrent example — also work with the iPad . likewise , the keyboard commands for cut , copy , paste , and selecting text ( Shift plus pointer key ) also figure out with an iPad connected to a keyboard .
And the disappointments
When you suggest , as Apple repeatedly has , that a gimmick contains a measuring of magic , you set expectations on stunning . Do that , fail to have that magic at every act , and owners find defect . As did we in the follow illustration .
No accounts : The iPad ’s bragging screen and touchscreen port make it an idealistic mate for around - the - sign of the zodiac task — reading books , using educational software , browse the vane , checking e - chain mail , play games . That make it a tempting mark for everyone in the house . But this reveals one of the iPad ’s shortcomings : You ca n’t fix up account or groups of place setting , so everyone has access to all e - mail accounts , the WWW , and so on . It would be great if the screen door whorl permit you enrol different codes — one for Parent 1 , another for Parent 2 , another for The Kids — each supply different character of admission and different options .
It feels like the rich Home blind distance could be put to better habituate .
It’s lighter than a notebook, but the iPad still has some heft to it, especially when you’re holding it up to read.
Wasted Home screen place : The iPad ’s dwelling house screen is call out for improvement . Some have suggested that it ’s a waste of quad to have such a huge screen with tiny , widely - spaced icon . Worse yet , the number of app icons on each line changes when you interchange from portrait ( 4 ) to landscape painting ( 5 ) mode , or vice versa , so every app icon but one — the app in the upper - bequeath recess — changes location when the iPad changes orientation course . If you normally view your iPad in portrait orientation and of a sudden flip-flop to the rest home screen when the iPad ’s on its side , you have to track down around for the image that was once in the second position on the third line of ikon .
Put that place to work : Taking things a step further , people have asked for a “ widgetized ” ringlet screen on the iPhone — a customizable , at - a - glimpse display of the day ’s appointments , new Mail message , a ceaseless slur for the current iPod racecourse , and perhaps a berth or two for third - company app notification . It ’s something that smartphones have done for ages ( and something we hope makes a surprisal appearance in the coming iPhone OS 4.0 update as one of those unpredicted improvements that once in a while pour down up in a last release ) .
The iPad ’s top-notch - sized screen all but super - size that demand for some kind of customizable options for the whorl CRT screen . gargantuan wallpapers are pretty , but that ’s a ton of outer space that could be used to expose utilitarian entropy without coerce me to unlock and open five different apps just to crack on my twenty-four hour period .
presentment also seem wasteful in their current implementation . Do we really need modal dialog boxes that take over the whole screen ? And if you get a inundation of them , they just keep replacing each other .
The iPad in iTunes : While the App Store make it easy to search for apps that have been update for , or design specifically for , the iPad , it almost seems as if Apple forgot to update iTunes along the way . If you enter the master Apps view ( by clicking Apps in iTunes ’ sidebar ) , choose View - > By List , and then turn on the Kind chromatography column ( by choosing View - > View Options ) , you’re able to see which apps are iPad - optimize — but that ’s not incisively exploiter - friendly . Worse , you see even few options when viewing the Apps tabfor your iPad . In other words , when your iPad is connect and you ’re choosing which apps to sync , there ’s no agency to see which are optimized for the iPad .
Similarly , when you sync your iPad with iTunes , iTunes mechanically syncs any apps you ’ve purchased since the premature sync ; it would be useful if you could distinguish iTunes to sync only newfangled iPad - optimize apps .
Safari ’s pages : Safari allow you open up to nine World Wide Web Thomas Nelson Page at a clip , but due to the iPad ’s special retention , you ’ll often find that Safari ca n’t keep the mental object of all those Sir Frederick Handley Page ; when you swap to a unlike Thomas Nelson Page , Safari will often seek to refresh it . This can be frustrative , especially if you loaded several Web pages for offline meter reading — you end up with blank pages .
Safari ’s lacking tabs : While we ’re on the subject of Safari , why is it that the third - political party Atomic Web browser app app can habituate tab but Apple has n’t convey that feature to its own mobile browser app ? In many post , chit are far more convenient than the entanglement page Safari depot .
Whoops : The iPad is sure as shooting sleek , but it ’s alsoslippery . Apple ’s case make it easy to securely fascinate the iPad , but it adds heft . A few strategically placed ridges would help .
It ’s lighter than a notebook computer , but the iPad still has some heft to it , especially when you ’re accommodate it up to read .
The ponderosity : At just a British pound sterling and a one-half , the iPad is certainly lighter than a laptop . Then again , it ’s the rare individual who sustain a laptop computer in their hired man while function with it . In many cases you’re able to put the iPad in your circle or work with it while docked in a stall . But what about those who read in bottom ? We ’re not all trim from the Mike and Carol Brady cloth — sitting bolt of lightning just in seam , chastely read meliorate books . If , like many people , you shore up your headspring up with a pillow or two and restrain a playscript in front of your with arms tittup at the elbow , your arms and manus will jade after a chapter or two .
The shining : The iPad ’s screen can be quite shining and , thus , overcome its reflective glossiness . But not always . In apps and videos with dark screen background or when reading outdoors in sunny weather , the screen ’s reflection can be distracting .
The limits of wireless : Do n’t get us incorrect — we enjoy the iPad ’s wireless connectivity , and for many users , the Wi - Fi - only models will be absolutely suited to their want . But …
But there were multiplication when we were out and about that wereallycould have gone for some connection connectivity , only there was no Wi - Fi to be institute . Many of the iPad ’s strengths depend on its power to get online — as such , limiting yourself to Wi - Fi - only connectivity can be a rough-and-tumble , particularly if there ’s something you want to do ( or someone you need to impress ) that need a web connection . Many iPad - totingMacworldstaffers are looking forward to Friday when they can trade in their iPads for 3G - equipped models with AT&T ’s delete - at - any - clock time service contract ; we expect more than a few readers will experience the same .
The last word
Apple has say us clock time and again that the iPad was designed as an in - between gadget , meant to cuddle between the iPhone and MacBook . Given its neither - fish - nor - bird nature , one could pretty expect surprises — those that enrapture as well as disappoint . Given that many of our misgiving about the iPad are based on software and OS design , we hold out hope that the solution to our gripes will be addressed in succeeding update .
Dan Frakes , David Chartier , Dan Moren , Chris Holt , Rob Griffiths , and Christopher Breen contributed to this paper .
